Good question. If Frakes had directed, he probably wouldn't have felt the need to give himself and awful fight scene at the end just because otherwise he'd be completely useless.
shareFrom what I've heard, the studio owed the director "a favor", so they gave him this film to direct. He didn't like Star Trek, and didn't even know the character's names, but decided to take the job. It ended up being his last film.
shareWow, if true that's pretty awful. I suppose they figured that with all the experienced cast there they could help him avoid mistakes, huh? Wonder what film they took him off in exchange for this one...
shareAccording to the trivia:
In order to get the job of directing the film, Stuart Baird did uncredited reediting work on two other Paramount films, Mission: Impossible II (2000) and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001).share
The film's cast--in particular, Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis and LeVar Burton--have leveled fierce criticism at director Stuart Baird over his direction of the film, claiming the director hated the Star Trek universe and knew nothing about it. Baird, for his part, expresses his frustration in the DVD commentary at having to tell a story in an established universe with pre-existing design and character relationships, hated having to utilize recycled sets and props and has trouble remembering the names of the main cast.
The director Stuart Baird was reportedly oblivious to Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)'s universe, to the point that he thought LeVar Burton's character was an alien instead of a human with cybernetic eyes.
Jonathan Frakes was not asked to direct. He said that if he were asked, he would have accepted.
Rick Berman considered offering LeVar Burton the chance to direct, but was then ordered by the studio to hire Stuart Baird.
Director Stuart Baird repeatedly mispronounced LeVar Burton's name as "Laverne".
Wow, amazing!
shareLol Laverne. I presume he thought Shirley was a klingon.
shareIt’s hard to believe that they were so cavalier about the director choice.
shareDon't always listen to what is posted in those sections you can listen to the director speak he wasn't moaning as claimed and the same with he didn't hate star trek.
What he moaned about was how it was suppose to be a film yet it was still using and treated like a low budget tv show also he wanted to appeal to mass audience.
The funny thing is that Nicholas Meyer didn’t like Star Trek until he wrote and directed The Wrath of Khan and he did a great job.
shareThe movie probably would have been marginally better with Frakes directing. I think he would have fought harder to have bigger parts for his castmates.
shareIt would have been marginally better having someone who'd watched an episode direct it however would have still been polishing a turd.
shareIt certainly would have had better character moments. But the whole story was a bad idea. It was a mistake to have the movie be all about Picard in the first place. Or any one character. It's an ensemble show.
sharehttps://www.vulture.com/2019/01/star-trek-jonathan-frakes-director-interview.html
After Insurrection, you didn’t return to direct Nemesis. Why?
I would have loved to have done Nemesis, but it seemed like, “Really? That’s all you’re going to do, is Star Trek movies?” It’s glib to say now. I wish I had done Nemesis.
Everyone likes to crap on Baird here but the issue here was the script which he had nothing to do with. I thought the direction was pretty good, feels the most like a "major motion picture" of any of the TNG movies.
On the other hand both of Frakes's felt "made for TV" to me and like extended episodes of the TV show. Didn't matter with First Contact because that was a very good script (Insurrection on the other hand......), but I doubt he improves things here considering Nemesis had a crappy script.